Waiting for the bus to Sercuk [YQrtw Day 54 May 31]

Location: Pamukkale, Turkey

I’ve grown to like unwinding days during this trip. I secretly wish to have days when I do not need to sightsee or walk under the hot sun, to sit in the shade and scroll through my Feedly for cat photos.

Today was such a day. Mom and I were travelling to Sercuk at 4:00pm for our Ephesus tour tomorrow morning.

The travel agents have been very enthusiastic in pushing the day tour for Aphrodisias. As much as I love crumbled buildings full of history, I’ve had quite enough of walking in the hot sun looking at crumbled buildings. Well, at least for today.

I managed to convince mom that we should hang out at the hotel until our check out time at 11:00 am. In the early morning, mom–who had napped for a long time yesterday–went for a walk by herself while I continued to sleep.

The part where I sing praises about egg

When I woke up, mom was back from her walk. We had our hotel buffet breakfast. My very favorite type of food for breakfast here is the egg.

The marvellous, humble, notorious, protein-packed hard boiled egg.

In the face of unfamiliar breakfast food such as bread, tomato, cheese and ham, the egg triumphs for its complex flavor.

The part where I forget my ATM card and get ourselves lost

The thing about travelling with someone else is that they will see all the travel mistakes I make along the way.

I do not mind getting lost and finding my way back but with my mother, it’s a lot harder to continue getting lost as she would ask me to ask for directions. (I detest asking for directions.)

This morning, after breakfast, we walked to the main road for the ATMs. I told my mom that she was taking the wrong path and said we should take the two paths and see who is right.

Turns out mom was right. Oh well.

We did manage to find the row of ATMs. However, I was devastated to discover that I left my ATM in my other bag.

NOOOOOO!

My misadventures for the day did not stop there.

When we went looking for the post office, I some how misread my Google Maps directions and went to two wrong places before mom asked some school kids how to get there.

Well, at least there was an ATM there and we could get some cash out.

The rest of the day was spent at a tourist-oriented restaurant run by the hilarious 68-year-old Mustafa. We then head to the Japanese restaurant for Today’s Desserts which was banana cake and was also Yesterday’s desserts.

At the restaurants, Mom and I bumped into two groups of Malaysian girls. One group were air hostess in Oman while the other came on the same flight as mom. It’s a really small world.

PS It seems like we’ve met more East Asian girls travelling than boys. Can someone explain why this is the case?

Eventually, our bus to Sercuk arrived. It was a van. I was stuck in the corner with a really chatty Brazillian who talked to an Argentinian girl about travel throughout the first 2 hour of the journey. I never knew anyone could talk so long without stopping to breathe.